🔁 Throwback Thursday: The Time I Abstracted Too Soon

I still remember this one clearly.

I was working on a feature that needed two slightly different components. Naturally, I thought:

“Hmm… let’s be smart and make a reusable abstraction up front.”

So I spent a few extra hours generalizing the logic, creating a “flexible” component that could handle any edge case I might encounter in the future.

It had flags. It had configuration. It had callbacks.

It was... beautifully abstracted.

📉 What Happened Next

A week later, requirements changed. The two components diverged. The flags grew. The logic tangled.

Suddenly, I was maintaining a monster that tried to do everything—and pleased no one.

Instead of helping, my abstraction slowed me down. I ended up deleting the whole thing and rewriting each component separately. They were simpler. Easier to test. Easier to reason about.

🤯 What I Learned

Don't abstract until you have at least 3 real use cases.

Premature abstraction feels like a smart move—but often, it’s just guessing in the dark.

What looks “clean” today can turn into tech debt tomorrow.

🛠️ What I Do Differently Now

• I copy-paste more in the beginning (yep, you read that right).
• I wait until duplication hurts before abstracting.
• I treat abstraction as a response to repetition, not a prediction.

💬 Real Talk

Sometimes "Don't Repeat Yourself" needs to take a backseat to "Keep It Simple".

If you’ve ever built a generic framework for a problem that never scaled—hey, I’ve been there. And I promise, you're not alone. 😅